On Saturday, India’s newest semi-high speed train Vande Bharat train recommenced its operation between New Delhi and Varanasi. It will operate except on Monday and Thursday. This resumption comes after a break period of over 170 days due to lockdowns. An extra 80 trains once again begun operation across the country, under the decision of Indian Railways.
March 23 saw the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, thereby leading to the suspension of Vande Bharat operations following the imposition of a nationwide lockdown. At present, the second Vande Bharat Express train linking New Delhi and Katra still remain suspended. First-day occupancy rate was low at 2% passenger booking on this train.
This is just day one. Many trains are weekly, bi-weekly and so on. Reservation for those trains is expected to pick up as we get closer to those days,” said a railway official.
The train will be numbered 02435 which will leave Varanasi at 3 pm for New Delhi, and 02436 will leave New Delhi at 6 am for Varanasi. Data reveals railways stating that they have introduced special trains in areas with more demand and waitlisting, but only three of 80 have managed to garner even 50 per cent occupancy on the first day of booking.
Important takeaways were that when the railways announced that bookings were open for the 15 pairs of trains running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12 and 100 pairs operating since June 1 — the tickets were all booked within a few hours.
Initially, at a media briefing, the railway board chairman VK Yadav said, “Eighty new special trains or 40 pair of trains will start operating from September 12. Reservations will begin from September 10. These will run in addition to the 230 trains already in operation.” Operating trails will be monitored to identify long waiting lists.
“Wherever there is a demand for a particular train, wherever the waiting list is long, we will run a clone train ahead of the actual train, so that passengers can travel,” he said.
The critical factor in deciding the 80 new trains was the fact that there were many stations from where the migrant workers are going back to their workplace, Yadav said.